Elkhart County Indiana, the Amish Experience & More!
Elkhart County Indiana incorporates many things. There is the amazing Amish Experience, which incorporates handcrafted shopping, unique stops and of course extraordinary dining opportunities! All this in 468 square miles!
The main towns within Elkhart County, are Elkhart, Goshen, Middlebury, Nappanee, Millersburg and Bristol, and close by, but not in Elkhart, is the Amish community of Shipshewana. On a trip with many talented Midwest Travel Network travel bloggers, we were hosted by the Elkhart County CVB. We stayed in Elkhart at the Hotel Elkhart, then traveled out from there.
We parked our cars and rode on a wonderful bus during our stay. Ernie Rivas, the owner and operator of Reveille Transportation drove us around this beautiful countryside!
Sonya Nash, of the Elkhart County CVB, grew up in the area as a farmer’s daughter. She along with Elkhart CVB’s Terry Mark shared that the local farmers grow corn, oats and sunflowers. Elkhart County is known as the RV manufacturing capital in Goshen and Middlebury, and in Bristol as the corndog capital! Coming from Springfield, Illinois where the Cozy Dog was said to be invented, that caught my attention!
Learning about the Amish Stops in Elkhart County
One of the best ways Terry said to find Amish stops and enjoy the Amish Experience in Elkhart County is to use the Heritage Trail Driving Tour. The drive makes a scenic loop! Another way Sonya added is to hire an Amish guide. We learned that Orley Miller, who we would later meet at Carolyn Yoder’s for breakfast is one of the guides that offers the tours. There are many great places to see Amish and Mennonite homes, shops and more. Just keep in mind that this is where they live, work and worship and we are only welcome when invited and have an appointment.
Breakfast at an Amish Home
Carolyn Yoder, of Yoder’s Homestyle Cooking, cooked us an Amish breakfast. She fixed a haystack meal (eggs, veggies and cheese piled on a biscuit then covered with gravy, by everyone but me because I am not a gravy fan) which was delicious. The highlight of the morning was the demonstration of how to make a homemade cinnamon roll. Best of all, we got to sample it! One of the secrets she shared when she rolled out the rolls, was to use a cooking spray, so they didn’t stick. I will have to try that.
Henry and Carolyn Yoder, and her father Orley Miller were wonderful to talk with. We enjoyed seeing the Yoder’s lovely home and sampling Carolyn’s amazing cooking! A typical meal at the Yoders is usually homemade bread, cauliflower/broccoli salad, mashed potatoes, gravy, noodles or dressing (choose one), vegetable (choice of corn, mixed vegetables, green beans, or creamed peas). Meat choices are usually chicken, Salisbury steak, ham, BBQ meatballs, Meatloaf, or Roast beef for an upcharge.
Then there is an amazing array of pies too many to mention. For a meal with two meats the price is $20 and one meat $19 plus tax and gratuity. In most cases she asks for a group of 12 or more. You may be able to catch a group and be added on! Call the Elkhart County CVB for information. They can tell you how to reach Carolyn, or other Amish home meal opportunities. Don’t miss out on this is you have time. This is a rare way to dine and enjoy an Amish Experience. Firsthand you can see the food and companionship of the wonderful people! The CVB can also help with an Amish tour guide.
Handcrafted Shopping Opportunities!
In the Amish and Mennonite communities, there are opportunities to find homemade and hand-crafted items. I bought a lot of food items at the Dutch Country Market in Middlebury, Indiana. Noodles, jams, and popcorn were high on my list.
Then, there is an Epic Adventure Quilt Garden out front for visitors to enjoy. There is a platform to stand on to get a great view. This year Elkhart County is celebrating 15 years of the Epic Art Adventures Quilt Gardens. Many days you can watch them making homemade noodles at the Dutch Market!
Teaberry Wood Products
Teaberry Wood Products located in Middlebury provide custom handcrafted wooden baskets and vertical puzzles. The Miller family work together to offer these beautiful, exclusive hand-crafted walnut, cherry and other hardwood wooden products. LaVern Miller gave us a tour and showed us how he creates some of the wooden baskets. They share their devout faith as well as their products with items like nativity scenes. I had to have one lovely scene for myself! LaVern also has started making Easter scenes as well. The shop is open to tour, and they also offer workshops.
Das Dutchman Essenhaus
The Essenhaus campus is just that, a selection of hotel, Amish style restaurant, shopping, and outdoor recreation all rolled into one. This is the place to be in Middlebury for an Amish Experience if you are planning a girl’s getaway, or a family reunion or such an event! We toured the beautiful hotel designed in a cozy decor with beautiful quilts here and there. My favorite area was the atrium section which had rooms surrounding a decorated sitting area. Each room is unique.
After our hotel tour we had a great buffet lunch. The buffet serves roast beef, fried chicken and my favorite, mashed potatoes and gravy. They even had a wonderful salad bar that I never made it to because my plate was already so full. The restaurant serves 1.100 people making it Indiana’s largest restaurant!
We were joined at lunch by Essenhaus’s Joel Miller, campus manager, and Carson Troyer, marketing manager. They shared on Thursday’s there is a classic car show during the summer months. Events take place here regularly. After lunch, I tried the peanut butter pie, it was amazing!
After lunch, we all had time on our own to tour the grounds and check out the five specialty shops. There is also miniature golf, bicycles you can rent and a carriage ride. There is one of the Epic Art Adventures Quilt Gardens, along with one of the Seward Johnson statues on display as well.
Janus Motorcycles
While Janus Motorcycle seems an unlikely choice for an Amish story, I learned that these vintage looking motorcycles use materials (leather for the seats and more) that in part are produced by Amish craftsmen! That is why they are located in the heart of the Amish community.
Janus Motorcycles were selected as the coolest thing made in Indiana! Hannah Lehman, sales manager shared with us that several women also work here, and women are purchasing this motorcycle as well. She said many women come in with their partners and like the looks, then come back for one of their own! A friend of mine saw my picture of this neat bike and wanted an electric bike that had the Janus look, it is that cool! They build 50, 250 and 450 cc motorcycles.
During our tour, we were amazed that we could see the motorcycles being put together. “It is very rare to walk into a factory and see motorcycles being built,” Hannah said. “That doesn’t happen anywhere. We build 85% in this County and the surrounding area from the frames to fenders, chassis and powder coating. An Amish saddler and harness maker help us out too, this is a special place.”
Nappanee Center
The Nappanee Center is part of the Nappanee Library system. This wonderful museum has an array of items including a wonderful quilt art collection by Emma Schrock. Donated by the Doug Grant family, Emma Schrock is known as the “Grandma Moses of Elkhart County”. Martha Owen, the Heritage Collection manager told us about the collection saying that Emma Schrock was of the Old Order Mennonite faith. Emma Schrock grew up with physical challenges. and used painting as a way to bring funds into their home. At the Center, they have 57 of her amazing paintings.
The museum also has wonderful Hoosier cabinet history display and an early house and more! Many of these Hoosier cabinets were made by the Coppes Cabinet company. Sonya commented that the Hoosier cabinets were to help housewives be more productive in the kitchen, but not to necessarily to get them out of the kitchen! The museum also has a cool early house to walk through.
To me, the item that was the most fun was a 7′ apple pie pan that is used for the apple pie festival every year in September!
Coppes Commons
The former Coppes Cabinet Company where the popular Hoosier cabinets were made has been converted to a shopping area and Coppes Museum! Their website shares a bit of history, “Beginning with the turn of the 20th century, Coppes became a common household word. The furniture and kitchen cabinets, known as “Hoosiers,” were built to high-quality standards, right here in Nappanee in these very buildings. This industry was the largest in Nappanee and helped build the town. “
Here I visited the museum, tried flash frozen Rocket Science ice cream and watched Amish food dished up to happy customers! There were some fun shops that I resisted with great restraint!
RV and Manufactured Home Museum
Many Amish work in the RV industry. From generation to generation, plots of land handed down have become smaller, and smaller. This has meant that some of the Amish have had to leave the farm for work, and the RV industry needs their craftmanship skills.
The RVMH museum is a great place to see the history of the RV manufacturing (and soon the Manufactured home history as well). This museum was a surprise for me. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was blown away by the amazing vehicles from famous ones like Mae West’s 1931 Housecar, and the 1939 Lindbergh Travel Trailer built for him!
Being a vehicle junkie, the earliest ones from the early 1900’s were my favorites. They have the oldest 1913 travel trailer in the world. Then there is even an 1885 John Deere Conestoga Wagon that was restored after being in a garage for nearly 70 years! Who says you can’t find JD history everywhere! There are even motorhome models for toy fans!
Elkhart County Indiana is a heartwarming place to visit and find the Amish Experience and Mennonite treasures and make memories. I loved finding new things to see and do where Hoosier hospitality is alive and well!
